Out-n-About Again

This week, Wednesday - Sunday, we have friends Bob and Peggy coming from Atlanta to stay as our very first houseguests. Astrid is working today but will take the rest of the week off so that we can give the big tour, packing as much in as possible to show where we live.

So, after our Apeldoorn trip 3 Saturdays ago, we've basically stayed put these last two weekends, except for backyard trips near home...like our favorite pannenkoeken restaurant out in the polder, 15km away...to see things through their eyes. It's been fun to plan each day.

Many of the canals right now have a carpet of kroos (= duckweed) growing on top.
Parents have to make sure small children/dogs don't accidently walk in!
But the ducks are in heaven because it's highly nutritious for them.
As Astrid says, they just open their mouths and vacuum it up!


If it's not kroos, it's wonderful sections of lily pads. This is that time of year!


Every once in awhile we see llamas...just like we do in America.
But look at the buck teeth on the right-hand fella! A face only Mama could love. HA.
I'm guessing they've learned not to walk into the kroos.


I love the polder. What is it about all that gorgeous space away from the city?!
Actually, some of the wealthiest homesteads are there....


...along with their weathervanes, of course.
This is the second windmill vane we've seen since I've been here.


Bob and Peggy will be intrigued by all the war bunkers around the area.
Some like this one are national heritage sites and cannot be torn down. They're Dutch reminders of both world wars and are called groepsschuilplaatsen (= group hiding/safe houses).
The steel hooks strengthen the concrete and held camouflage nets.


The Leerdam water tower from 1929 is down the street from the above war bunker.
I took its picture over a year ago but this time I was up close and personal.

All of that was two Saturdays ago...15km away from our back door.

This past week there was every bit as much to see within walking distance here within our city! You really do just have to get out and look, right?!

I wonder if this is the same fella from a couple posts back?
Can you imagine carrying your house on your back every time you go out-n-about?


I love the hollyhocks in bloom everywhere.
They grow wild here and are called stokrozen = stick roses.


I'm still trying to figure out my macro lens. Lots of experimentation!

It so happens this past week was the last week of summer vacation before the kids start school today here in the Netherlands (grandson Nicholas started 6th grade last week in Atlanta!). In many cities, the last week of summer vacation is day camp, as it was here in Gorinchem where we live. And that meant TIMMERDORP (= Hammer Village).

Ik hout van Holland on the above banner is a play on words.
Hout = wood. Houd = love. Both pronounced the same: "I love/wood Holland."

Besides all the water activities, the kids get to build houses out of wood supplied by lumberyards (like where Astrid worked last job). Every child brings their own hammer from home and helps build their fort,
often with a loft, supervised by adult leaders.
I didn't take pictures of the forts because I had the wrong lens (macro), but here's a video.


By Thursday, the kids were "over" their forts anyway, having too much fun with everything else.


All this took place at Buiten de Waterpoort (= outside the waterport) on the Merwede River.
It's where the war memorial stands...remembering those who never came back from the wars.


It's also where the water taxis come to ferry people from here to there.

Lots of nice benches to wait on till the right taxi comes!

Right there, over the shoulders of the family eating lunch, is the gate that enters the Lingehaven harbor into Gorinchem from the Merwede River (the same entrance for Sinterklaas on 5 December each year). Remember, this is a citadel city. Again, I watched through Bob and Peggy's eyes as a boat entered from the outside (top row of images below)....

...and then came through into the harbor (bottom row above).
There's a holding place big enough for 2-3 boats while one gate is closed and the other is opened.
And you can stand on top and watch the whole thing!


Talk about the life of Riley!
(click any image to enlarge, of course)

And then I came back home to almost as much excitement...a week of repairs to our sidewalks here inside our Lindeborg courtyard. See, sometimes you don't even need to leave home!

I told a British blogger the other day that all our brick/cobblestone walks/roads are "cemented" with sand.
It means they can always be pulled up very easily and repaired.
I love to see how things work here. Bob and Peggy will, too!

One last thing: did you notice that I tweaked my template a little bit? I decided to to give my Shutterfly photo book some shameless exposure on my sidebar. The only way I could get it to fit properly was to widen the sidebar.

So....there you have it. Enough out-n-about till another week!

Virtual Realities

Another day. Another blogger met. Another photo hunt.
Today is my turn again at Vision & Verb, talking about when we meet blogger friends and when virtual reality becomes...well, real. In the above case, it was Petra, one of our V&V collaborators who happens to live in Tilburg just 30 km from us here in Holland. We knew we'd meet her eventually, so when we found out she was participating in a photo exhibition a week ago, we made a day of it.

The photo exhibition was in the small town of Moergestel, 7 km east of Tilburg in North Brabant province south of us. Approximately 6K residents. Astrid had already Googled the area to see what was there and found out there was a different kind of windmill we don't normally see, just outside the city. So we decided to first get the lay of the land before driving over to the exhibition. This weathervane was on the other side of the street from the windmill, so we got two for the price of one. (Click on image to see what he was shooting.)

This is a standerdmolen from 1852 and is similar to the wipmolen at Kinderdijk I have shown here. Both are post mills but this one has a round(ish) base. It was a frosty morning but the sun was shining.
Even Granny Towanda was in heaven.

From the windmill, Astrid kindly asked TomTom to take us to the Nieuwenhof Castle from the 14th century...and she did (our TomTom is a lady)! In 1840 it became a monastery named the St. Stanislaus Institution. Today it's used as a mental healthcare facility. I feel better already, don't you?!

Then into the tiny town of Moergestel to 'do' our koffie thing (no appeltaart, however, because they forgot to take it out of the freezer the night before). The town square has its ubiquitous church, the Roman Catholic St. John's Beheaded, whose tower was built in 1500. It wasn't open, but not to worry. We heard its one bell ring and we walked around it. Astrid, btw, is taking a picture of a giant bicycle air pump there on the city square.

This is the point at which we then went to meet Petra at her exhibition (photos at the top of the post). By the time we said our Good-Byes, it was time to drive the 7 km to Tilburg to find the water tower on TomTom's list of things to see. It's where we also planned to eat lunch.

But what to our wondering eyes should appear....

...the Adbij Onze Lieve Vrouw van Koningshoeven (Abbey of Our Lady of Koningshoeven) trappist monastery, right out in the middle of nowhere! Talk about changing the plans of mice and [wo]men. See the foggy image (above) of the church? We stopped dead in our tracks because the sun was shining through the windows from the other side...never knowing it was part of a monastery. As we turned the corner, there it was. We had to stop and check it out, of course.


After walking around a bit, it became crystal clear this was a monastery that made and sold its own beer! De Koningshoeven Brewery, a Dutch Trappist brewery, was founded there in 1884 and has an annual production of 145,000 hectoliters (3,830,495 gallons). Tell me someone's not having a lot of fun!


...not far from the restaurant where we decided on the spot to eat our lunch. What serendipity. It was as though the whole day was waiting to surprise us with this place. We could have taken a tour (the only way to get into the church and walk the inner grounds) but it was already crowded and we didn't really want to wait. Another day.


Clearly they do well for themselves. The business was brisk! And the beer was GREAT. Even Astrid, who generally does not drink beer, liked it. The whole experience was totally worth it.


Those monks aren't dummies, of course. They positioned their delightful Kloosterwinkel (Monastic Shop) right at the entrance, where we gladly took a look around and...of course...bought two stone bottles of the Dubbel beer (7% ABV) we had just enjoyed at lunch.
Authentic trappist product!


Astrid is always the Trooper, taking the bag to the car
and then coming back for our last photos before leaving.

Then finally, our last destination of the day....

...the Tilburg water tower, built in 1897 at 50.5 meters high.

Did you notice? We started the day with a weathervane and ended it with a water tower.
And in between, we met a wonderful blogger and then drank to it with a delightful Trappist beer.

How's that for virtual realities becoming the real thing!
More on Vision & Verb....

What Granny Towanda Saw

Our brand-spanking new Granny Towanda (she had 5 km on her when we picked her up) was christened this past Saturday, as we had wished. No rain on our parade...only a couple sprinkles and lots of moody skies with an attitude. Towanda stood out like a green thumb everywhere we went. See how she brightens up the world here in front of this church in Cellicum! We all have fallen in love with each other.

This is what we did: we left home at 10 a.m. and returned at 4:30 p.m., driving only 100 km (62 miles) to Buren and back...more or less in a loop, stopping at anything and everything that caught our eye to get out and take pictures. Some of what we saw was new even to Astrid, even though she has lived in the area her entire life. You know how that is.

Since I "collect" water towers, I had to grab this one in Leerdam.
It was built in 1929 and is 50.25 meters (165 ft) high.


In Acquoy we saw the "Dutch tower of Pisa," a Reformed church known for it's leaning tower (which I didn't know till I Googled it). The main thing that stood out to me was that it doesn't have a steeple. While I took several shots without a house in front of it, this one most shows the lean.


In sequence, we then saw the Cellicum church at the top of this post, followed by this church from Beesd, similar in architectural style to the one in Acquoy. No steeple.


Just outside of Beesd, we saw a sign for the Klooster in Mariënwaard where we found this windmill "outstanding" in its field. It was worth the whole trip, as far as I was concerned.


At the Klooster itself are these two haystacks (which Don and Ruth will love). From that point on I found them everywhere...the typical Dutch way of storing hay. The roof slides up and down on those vertical beams, depending on how much hay you have stored! Isn't that the most clever thing you've seen in a long time!
Leave it to the Dutch.


Then, just before arriving in Buren, our destination, we saw this yellow church in Asch, and just had to stop. It's the first yellow church I may have seen anywhere, period! In 2001 Asch (founded before 1405) had 176 inhabitants. I'm guessing the church is big enough?

Then it was Buren, where we ate lunch and spent the rest of our day before taking the interstate back home. Another fabulous church, a windmill, a museum of the Royal Military Police, a sundial, a candle-making shop...and a rum-raisin ice-cream treat! How can you top that!

Here Astrid stands next to the statue of William of Orange and Anna van Buren, in front of the Saint Lambertus church. Were they really that small back then???

The eetcafé was our first stop once we entered Buren. It was lunchtime!

This is the Saint Lambertus Calvinist Reformed church in Buren, seen from almost every point in the city. You can see more views in the photo album.


The Prince of Orange windmill.


Buren is closely related to the Dutch royal family. Queen Beatrix is the Countess of Buren. The House of Orange is Dutch royalty. If any royal person wants anonymity, he/she is referred to as a van Buren.


The Museum of the Royal Military Police, formerly an orphanage.


The Museum of the Royal Military Police, formerly an orphanage.


The Culemborg gate (if you squint, you can see the sundial above the arch) is Buren's main gateway.


Across the street from where we ate our ice cream we watched this gentleman dip his candles. The ones this big are being readied for Easter Sunday.

There you have it. Six-plus hours of a splendid outing to see what's almost at our doorstep here in Holland! Here's the photo album again. Granny (Smith Apple Green) Towanda did us proud and is itching to go out again the first weekend it's not raining. It might be sooner than we think.

Speaking of green:
HAPPY St. PADDY'S DAY!